John Richardson Young

Background

Young was born in 1782 in Hagerstown, Maryland, the son of Dr. Samuel and Ann Richardson Young.

Education

Young was graduated from the College of New Jersey (later Princeton) in 1799. Taking up medicine as a vocation, he began his studies under the preceptorship of his father and continued them at the University of Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1803.

Career

After graduation, Young returned to his native town to enter practice with his father. One year later he died at his home in Hagerstown of pulmonary tuberculosis. As most of that brief period was one of invalidism, Young's name would by now have been forgotten, had it not been for his original work of investigation done as a student and published in his inaugural thesis for the degree of M. D. The thesis bears two dedications, one to his father, the other to Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton, distinguished and versatile professor of materia medica, botany, and natural history in the University of Pennsylvania. As Barton's name is several times mentioned in the thesis, it may be presumed that Young received inspiration and suggestion from him in the prosecution of his experiments. The thesis, entitled An Experimental Inquiry into the Principles of Nutrition and the Digestive Process (1803), was republished in Charles Caldwell's Medical Theses (vol. I, 1805). It begins with some general facts relating to the digestibility and digestion of "nutrientia, " and then describes Young's experiments. The most important of these were made upon large frogs, into whose stomachs smaller frogs, living and dead, and various materials were introduced for varying lengths of time, to be removed as desired for later examination, or from whose stomachs gastric juice was removed with a teaspoon for chemical examination. These experiments, it should be remarked, preceded by twenty years the famous studies of digestion made by William Beaumont in the traumatically fistulated stomach of Alexis St. Martin, but for a long time, as a result of Young's early death, no attention was given to his work, so original, so ingenious, and of such far-reaching importance.

Achievements

• Young is best remembered for his original work of investigation done as a student.

Connections

Father:

Dr. Samuel Young

Mother:

Ann Richardson Young